Ahead
by Clio S.S
Summary: When you're meant for each other, it doesn't necessarily mean everything would go smoothly. Sometimes it takes time to realize what is really important. The text is short and was meant to be short, so any critical comments on its length are unwelcome.


_Puu ei pelkää tulta, mut taipuu liekin alla_  
_Tähdet paremmin kai näkee sivummalla_  
_Mut vaikea on tuttuja löytää mistään uusia_  
_Ja nyt mä kaksin vaimon kanssa takkatulta tuijotan_

Tree isn't scared of fire - still, it bows before the flame / The side-view makes you see the stars better / It's hard to find any new friend nowadays / Together with wife we keep looking at the fireplace

- Lapinlahden Linnut, "Takkatulen ääressä"

* * *

After having finished her evening toilette, she was still looking at her reflection in the mirror. She sighed.

"I'm getting old," she said more to herself than anyone else.

He heard her, of course.

"Don't bother yourself with it."

She smiled. His typical remark made in his typical indifferent tone. If it had been any other man, she would be mad. Any other woman would be mad.

But he didn't look at her this way.

She raised from the chair and sat down on the couch next to him. He embraced her, almost automatically. She knew him thoroughly; she knew he didn't use to do things automatically. She moved closer, resting her head on his shoulder. She could hear the beating of his heart. She kept smiling.

Time had left its mark on her, but he looked exactly like the day she had met him for the first time, over thirty years ago. His body of a warrior was still in perfect shape. And he didn't lose his charm. After she had got to know him, she never wanted any other man. And he hadn't even glanced at any other woman. Hadn't they been meant for each other?

She closed her eyes, cuddling up to him. The hug grew a bit tighter. In silence, they were just sitting.

He had never been mum, but never had he become a talker either. Her thought, involuntarily, flew back to the past. They had survived good and bad times. And bloody frustrating too. Thanks to him, she had developed several neuroses, and many grey hair on her head were credited to him, too. Her heart had gone through a lot as well.

She didn't regret anything.

They have been too alike to communicate without objections. And, at the same time, they could tolerate only one another, unaware, almost as if they had had an alliance against rest of the world: stupid, dumb, narrow-minded people. They had been both so terrible that no-one else would stand them for long - and they wouldn't stand anyone else. Self-willed egoists. Independent geniuses. Sometimes uncritical idiots, and neither of them able to admit their weakness. They had fought, screamed and hadn't given a damn about others. They could be completely uninterested in the matters, even the most important, that hadn't concerned them - to the extent of inspiring awe. In details essential only to them, they could go off and had never wanted to give in.

They had learned to respect one another. They had learned to stay by each other.

They couldn't be apart. They couldn't live apart.

He seemed to hear her thoughts. "How long do you Humans live?"

She lifted her gaze. His dark eyes that didn't know anything of fear flashed with a concern. She could understand him. His family - something that had been only an abstract word for many years - was scattering. His first-born son and beloved daughter grew up and had lives on their own. Now, he couldn't stand loneliness any more.

"We have still as much ahead," she answered calmly.

He fixed his eyes on her as if she was a centre of the Universe. Perhaps she was; perhaps she wasn't. For her, it was the only reality she knew.

'Don't bother yourself with it.'

After he had managed to finally see her, he never paid attention to her looks. He didn't bother with it. He didn't find it worth to bother with - so she decided to trust him. No-one else made her happy; there was no-one else she could believe. And no-one else could show their support with such perverse words, their meaning hid in the very fact they had been said aloud.

He put the other arm around her, pulled her closer and buried his face in her hair. She smiled again, melting in his warmth.

Life was just getting started.


End file.
